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Pianist-composer Brittany Anjou blends the influences of a wide range of jazz and classical piano, and a fascination with the Esperanto language, on her stunning debut Enamiĝo Reciprokataj, set for a February 15 release on Origin Records. A trio album featuring bassist Greg Chudzik and drummer Nicholas Anderson (as well as two tracks with special guests, bassist Ari Folman-Cohen and drummer Ben Perowsky), it also includes 10 original compositions, highlighted by an eponymous five-part suite that showcases both Anjou’s ambition and her originality.

Enamiĝo Reciprokataj (pronounced En-ah-mee-joh Reh-sih-pro-kah-tye) translates into English as Reciprocal Love — or, alternately, as Mutual Breakdown. “[It’s] a double entendre about improvisation and the push/pull of relationships,” Anjou writes. She also refers to multiple levels of relationships: “It represents the enigma improvisers face to spontaneously fall in love with their instrument/the sound/the situation/each other,” she says. “And additionally, to convince an audience to fall in love with their love.”

If the concept sounds somewhat esoteric, the music itself is anything but. The album’s bookend tracks, “Starlight” and its reprise “Reciproka Elektra,” alternate instantly compelling, electronically processed washes with warm and confidently swinging piano-trio melodies. Each of the suite’s five parts comprises an expressive, hook-filled tune and improvisation set to a joyful dance of a rhythm, from the whirlwind “Reciprokataj I: Cyrene (Flight of the Butterfly)” to the 5/4 bounce of “Reciprokataj IV: Olive You.” Even the grim determination Anjou presents on “Reciprokataj V: Flowery Distress” is offset by Folman-Cohen and Perowsky’s irrepressibility.

The album also honors Anjou’s most important pianistic influences. Her phrasing and chord voicings channel the respective spirits of Oscar Peterson and Red Garland; in addition, she separates the parts of the suite with songs that directly pay tribute to favorites Ahmad Jamal (“Snuffaluffagas“) and McCoy Tyner (“Hard Boiled Soup“). “All of the music celebrates my love affair with great jazz pianists,” she says.

Anjou’s use of Esperanto is not incidental: With Enamiĝo Reciprokataj, she begins a planned trilogy of albums based on the concepts and structures of world languages. (The next two installments will center on Dagara and Arabic, respectively.) “To me, Esperanto is a romance,” she says. “The language mirrors jazz improvisation . . . . Jazz and Esperanto are both contemporary languages of the last century, and both promote intercultural dialogue, democracy, and self-expression.”

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the artiststhe artists

Brittany Anjou

Brittany Anjou was born in 1984 in Minot, North Dakota, moving to Seattle as a very young child. Her mother was a pianist, flutist, and music teacher, and Brittany began playing piano herself at age five. Her mother also played a lot of jazz recordings around the house, and at 12, hearing a solo by the Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, Brittany was inspired to begin studying jazz.

As a high school student, she joined and toured with Seattle’s Roosevelt High School Jazz Band, meeting and performing with Wynton Marsalis in New York. Attending the Stanford Jazz Workshop at 16, she worked with Clark Terry, who became her idol. It was around that same time that Anjou began composing — including much of the material that eventually became Enamiĝo Reciprokataj

Arriving in New York to study music at NYU, Anjou studied with Stefon Harris, Tony Moreno, and Sherrie Maricle, as well as with Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer at School for Improvised Music. She also studied classical music in Prague with composer Milan Slavický, and West African gyil music in Ghana with master player Bernard Woma and his protegees. She has since performed in 13 countries on three continents with a number of ensembles including the New York Arabic Orchestra, the Shaggs, Bi TYRANT, and the LARCENY Chamber Orchestra (founding and leading the latter two).

Anjou began performing selections from Enamiĝo Reciprokataj while living in Prague in 2005 and continued honing it thereafter, including in a well-received performance with Bi TYRANT at New York’s Zinc Bar during the 2018 Winter Jazz Festival. In the fall of 2018, she returned to Kuwait to teach piano and jazz ensembles as part of a nine-month residency at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center opera house, in an experimental music program, the first of its kind in the country.

Greg Chudzik, bass

Greg Chudzik is an active performer across numerous genres on the double bass and electric bass. Currently, he can be seen performing regularly with several new music groups, including Signal Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Talea Ensemble. Greg is also a member of several bands, including Empyrean Atlas, Bing and Ruth, and The Briars of North America. He has worked with numerous influential figures in contemporary music, including Steve Coleman, Steve Reich, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, Helmut Lachenmann, Charles Wuorinen, Alex Mincek and Tristan Perich. Greg’s recording credits include playing on the Grammy-nominated “Barcelonaza” by Jorge Leiderman, “Pulse / Quartet” by Steve Reich on Nonesuch records, “Morphogenesis” and “Synovial Joints” by Steve Coleman on Pi Recordings, “No Home of the Mind” and “Tomorrow Was the Golden Age” by Bing and Ruth on RVNG records, the album “Americans” by Scott Johnson (Tzadik records), multiple recordings with Signal Ensemble on New Amsterdam and Mode Records, the album “Grown Unknown” by Lia Ices (Secretly Canadian records), the album “Inner Circle” by Empyrean Atlas, and the album “High Violet” by The National on 4AD records. Greg’s debut album “Solo Works, Vol. 1” was released in July of 2015 and features original pieces of music written for bass guitar and electronics. His follow-up album “Solo Works Vol. 2” features original compositions for double bass quartet and will be released in 2019.

Shirazette Tinnin, drums

Drummer, educator, clinician, author and health coach, Shirazette Tinnin was born and raised in North Carolina. Her early influences were gospel music, R&B and soul music. Her stylistic influences would eventually expand into jazz, rock and music from many parts of the African diaspora.

A graduate of Appalachian State University, Shirazette studied with Todd Right, Dr. Rob Falvo, Rick Dilling and Scott Meister. She studied and continues to be mentored by drummers Cindy Blackman, Lewis Nash, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ernie Adams and more. Shirazette received a full scholarship for drum set and jazz pedagogy from Northern Illinois University, where she studied under professor Ron Carter.

A 2008 recipient of The Sisters in Jazz Collegiate All-Stars for IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Award, Shirazette has also taught on the collegiate level at Columbia College in Chicago.

Currently residing in New York City, Shirazette was the house drummer for The Meredith Vieira Talk Show, Season 1 on NBC.

Shirazette performs and tours frequently with premier bands and artists such as the Allan Harris Group, Tia Fuller Quartet, The Mimi Jones Band, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble, Toshi Reagon, Women of the World Ensemble, Yuri Juarez, Queen Esther, Gabriel Algeria Afro Peruvian Sextet, Camille Thurman, Sydnee Winters, Natalie Douglass and many others. Shirazette is also the leader of her own projects including the Shirazette and Sonic WallPaper Fusion Band (formally known as The Shirazette Experiment) and The Blue Popped Culture Trio.

Shirazette is an active clinician, educator, mentor, composer, a certified personal trainer and published author. She is passionate about preserving the health, wellness, stamina and integrity of her craft. Her articles about performance and health advocacy have been featured in Modern Drummer and Tom Tom Magazine.